


Somewhere between endearing and insulting

by Goonlalagoon



Category: Leagues and Legends - E. Jade Lomax
Genre: Gen, I know most L&L fic ends up being friendship fic but this is specifically about friendship, if that makes sense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:08:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goonlalagoon/pseuds/Goonlalagoon
Summary: A collection of miscellaneous short pieces for the Leagues and Legends crew with a general theme of friendship
Relationships: The baby rangers - friendship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 5





	1. Somewhere between endearing and insulting

  
Lanes Jones didn't doubt their friendship.

She doubted plenty of things, a wary cynicism, picking apart everyone's words to find out what they were saying - not just the words, but what they meant and what the speaker thought they meant (not always the same thing) and what they weren't saying, and why - _because it wasn't relevant or they didn't want to tell her? Because they should she would respond in this way, and wanted her to do that instead?_ Laney listened close and decided how to react - how they wanted her to react, how she wanted to react, and which she should do.

She still did that with her friends, but it wasn't targeted at them. It was habit. It was catching Rupert's strain, his pressures and the burdens he thought he had to carry, when it was getting too much. It was picking apart Jack's confidences and hesitations, building up an idea of what he could do and when to let him call the shots. It was spotting Grey's fears and motivations (and, once his secrets started to come out, piecing together _all_ of his strengths, not just the ones he wore on his sleeve).

Rupert did. He didn't doubt his friends - at least, he didn't doubt the things he knew about them other than a cautious awareness that _everyone_ , sooner or later, had something they were trying to hide. But he did doubt why they wanted to spend time with _him_. Rupert was very good at seeing the worth in everyone but himself.

Jack and Laney followed him into an adventure (into danger) and he told himself it was just because they were stifled under the Academy rules. It was, in part. But they could have gone in search of a cause for themselves. They were reckless, yes, but they wouldn't have followed Clem. They trusted Rupert - for a given value of trust, to begin with, and he wasn’t fully sure he deserved even that. Like Laney, Rupert was used to shaping himself into what people expected him to be. Unlike Laney, he thought it was a flaw that he had to think about it.

After that first night of blazing camaraderie, Rupert realised he was lonely - or rather, let himself realise how lonely he had grown, his time measured in days of disinterested classmates and only odd hours with friends. He noticed the space around him in the dining commons the next morning with an unease he had thought he’d long since put behind him. Laney dropped her breakfast down by his and started on a rapid fire update on the status of their group project, as though she and Jack had meant every word they had said about being stuck with them. Rupert didn't have to think to make himself smile, to weigh up what was needed and expected and the appropriate response.

Neither did Laney.


	2. I want to learn this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First line taken directly from Beanstalk

_"And that is how to get it," said Jack._

Laney shot Jack an irritated glance - not that he could see it, lying on his bunk - but Grey was already flicking a book open to a useful page and trying to marshal his facts into a coherent order (without letting on how he was so certain of the practicalities. Saying you read it in a book would cover most things but Grey paid enough attention to be wary of Laney's own sharp eyes and ears). Even as her pride smarted, Laney had to admit Farris was right. Grey's reluctance and indignation vanished the moment he heard she really _wanted_ to know this. No. Wanted to _understand_ this.

Grey understood wanting to learn things. He thought he understood the fascination of magic and fear of what it could do to you that Laney was feeling. Secretly, he relished the chance to try out theories he didn't dare risk exposing himself to put to the test. He didn't understand reluctance to be seen to learn; he hated not knowing things, but he thrived on learning them. He thought Laney was the same.

When Laney's secret came out, he understood better. As a child he'd been handed tools, diagrams, affection that hinged on Sam Graves being Mayor Graves' perfect son. Grey swallowed new knowledge like an essential, like food or water or air, but Sam Graves had struggled night after night to make sure he was going to be who he was supposed to be the next day.

Laney knew that Grey's stumbled, stinging words shouldn't hurt her. He didn't know that magic was something she'd learnt to reach out and take from the world by herself, not something in her hands she simply had to tear free. She knew she should be glad he hadn't guessed she'd done the impossible, but all she felt was hurt at the reminder that this didn't come easily to her.

It was a while from this first awkward sharing of knowledge that she would realise _easily_ was perhaps not something to yearn for.

Slavers were a world away, until they weren't. They took Grey for warming his hands, and somewhere in the midst of her bemused irritation at someone who had exactly what she'd always wanted and denied it Laney thought about perfect stitches and expectations. She still held herself still and snapped defences, until Grey stared at her like a new world of study - which, in a way, she was - and brushed off the idea he thought this was anything other than fascinating.

They worked together after that, ideas and experiments. Grey didn't want to be a mage, but he had ideas about what could be done if you did. He had ideas about things Laney could do, too, things only _she_ could manage. It was gratifying. He didn't see just a contradiction, or a puzzle. He saw something special, something of value, something worth working on. They threw ideas at each other across tables and campfires, huddled around Jack’s unused desks, and tried to map out how much left there was to learn about something that was supposed to have been impossible.


	3. Two things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little less upbeat, but thought it still fit in the general theme of the group's friendships & how they approach them

Mage slavers caught Sanders Grey (caught Samuel Graves, caught one of two beating hearts the Seeress cared about) because he warmed his hands on the way to a book sale.

He was far from the mountains, from the fear in his sister's eyes - far from the fear in the air, seeping from the stones, from a place full of people who knew just how easily those black eyes would spot the brightest gold and have it stolen, snatched, and sucked dry.

Grey thought he was _safe_. Mages in the lowlands didn't hide, didn't shudder when gold sparks flickered on their fingertips. He was so far from the mountains, distance and years and growth he hadn't yet seen in himself.

He expected someone to have his back.

Grey laughed at the irony, weakly, curled in a cellar trembling at the thought of going home. He would never have done magic if his friends _were_ there, but he'd done it thoughtlessly because without ever stepping into a fight he knew they'd have his back, would keep him safe. He could not be touched by slavers, not because there were none, not because everyone knew Sam Graves _couldn't_ be a Mage, but because his friends would never let them.

But his friends weren't there.

They came for him, though, and he realised two things once he was safely in his bed, facts so obvious in hindsight that he was almost annoyed that he was only just learning them.

One - he had been deathly afraid they wouldn't come for him.

  
But also, two - he knew they always would.


End file.
